The state Liquor and Cannabis
Board has selected a product from a Poulsbo company to support
its licensing and enforcement operations throughout the state.

Paladin Data Systems’ SMARTGOV is a cloud-based
product that will manage the state’s alcohol and cannabis
permitting and licensing processes.

The system will allow the state to process applications faster,
and “empowers applicants to become active participants in the
permitting and licensing process, providing all of our citizens
with information transparency,” Paladin CEO Jim Nall stated in a
release.

The system will allow businesses to apply for permits, upload
documents and monitor those applications online.

Liquor and Cannabis Board spokesman Mikhail Carpenter said
SMARTGOV will replace the agency’s old, outdated licensing system
and will make the permitting process less complex for both state
employees and customers.

The agency is expected to begin using SMARTGOV in late 2017,
Carpenter said.

The former Grainger building across
from Safeway could
soon be home to Bremerton’s fifth brewery.

Silverdale residents Dave and Dawn Dodge (pictured) bought the
Callow Avenue building last year and have applied for
licenses to begin brewing in a portion of the 11,000-square-foot
space. They hope to launch their
Bad Bulldog’s Brewery as early as December.

Dave is a retired Arizona police officer who home
brews beer and now works at Sound Brewery in Poulsbo.

“It was a blessing,” Dave said of landing his job at Sound,
which has familiarized him with brewing on a commercial scale.
“They’ve been really inviting to me.”

The Dodges plan to build
out their Bremerton brewery in stages. They’ll start by installing
a 3.5-barrel brewing system in the lower level of the building and
open a simple tasting room with a patio for outdoor
seating.

Later the couple will add a full-scale tasting room one of
the building’s street-level storefronts. A bar built around an
opening in the floor will allow patrons to sip beers while watching
brewers at work below.

Eventually the Dodges hope to transform the entire
building into a beer-centric hub. The structure encompasses
four separate commercial spaces with individual addresses, giving
them plenty of room to experiment. They envision hosting a home
brewers collective and perhaps a bottle shop.

The couple applied for a license to place a recreational
marijuana shop in the Grainger building, but were never
approved. They joined a class action lawsuit against the
Liquor and Cannabis Board with
the hope of still landing a license.

If they prevail, Bad Bulldog’s Brewery could share the building
with a marijuana store.

Wobbly Hopps owners Jon and Sheree Jankowski are selling the
business to fellow brewing enthusiast Jeffery Scott of Port
Orchard. Scott takes the helm Sept. 1, just in time for Blackberry Festival.

The Jankowskis originally planned to hire a professional brewer
to oversee operations at Wobbly Hopps, but that never came to pass.
Jon said the couple has too many other interests and
obligations, including full-time jobs, to carry on running the
brewery.

“I waited until someone came along who I could trust to take it
over,” Jon said.

Jeff Scott brewing at Wobbly
Hopps

Scott said he’s been homebrewing for five years and worked an
apprenticeship at Sound Brewery in
Poulsbo.

He was considering opening another brewery in downtown Bremerton
before striking a deal with the Jankowskis.

Scott will take over a five-barrel brewing system and
a lively taproom with an outdoor seating area. He’ll continue
serving Wobbly Hopps’ beers at first, while gradually adding his
own recipes to the mix.

Scott’s first beer, a “Dog With No Name IPA” is already
brewing for the Sept. 1 opening.

“I can’t wait to serve some beer to the neighborhood,” Scott
said.

Check the Wobbly Hopps and
Dog Days
Brewing Facebook pages for updates. And keep an
eye on this blog for more Bremerton brewery news coming
soon.

With four breweries in a city of less than 10,000 residents,
Poulsbo will certainly have an embarrassment of malty riches.
So it’s fun to wonder where Poulsbo rates among craft
beer crazy towns.

There are all kinds of ways to
rank cities and
states based on beer. Which has the most breweries? The
most breweries relative to population? What city produces
the most barrels or consumes the most beer? And which has
the “best” breweries?